Canes Cane Caps

Remember when I said the Caps were able to bounce back from heartbreaking losses with a big win? Well, apparently it works both ways – they can also bounce back from a big win with a heartbreaking loss. So basically, momentum has no place in the Capitals’ world. That should be clear by the fact that they have yet to string more than 2 wins together this season, and even that happened only once.

I’m not going to dwell too much on this game – if the first loss of the season was painful, this one was downright excruciating and I’m really not a masochist. At least in the season opener they managed a few goals and played better as the game went on...

So let’s quickly do the good/bad from last night and begin looking forward to the Broadway Blueshirts tomorrow.

Good:
- Ummm....
- ...wait, give me a minute.
- I know there was something.
- Okay, John Erskine – he played surprisingly well and seemed to be the only physical presence in a Caps jersey.
- Steve Eminger – yes, that’s right, Eminger. I thought he had a good game – he seemed to have some jump in his skating that hasn’t been there all season and he did some good work.
- Johnny was good for the most part, although it definitely wasn’t his best outing. But in the first two periods at least he made some pretty big saves and kept the Caps in it for as long as he could.

And then the wheels came off...

Bad:
- Defense as a whole – turnovers were rampant by both forwards and defensemen, nobody was blocking shots, Canes were setting up in front of Johnny without being hassled, the physical aspect of the game was sorely lacking...and oh, yeah, they allowed 5 goals. I thought that Green and Pothier had particularly rough games – neither seemed all that sharp.
- Offense as a whole – 20 shots on goal.

That’s all I have to say. 20 shots.

- Alexander Semin – little 2.0 couldn’t seem to get a shot off, he was falling down all over the place (actually they all were – did they all forget how to skate?) and he ended the night with a team high -3. So now we have two problems with him that need to be fixed – he needs to snap out of this goalless streak and he needs to learn how to be defensively responsible.

To be fair, the Hurricanes played a heck of a game. They managed to shut down what up until last night had been a pretty potent offense. After being near the top of the league in penalties, they limited themselves to only 4 last night. Cam Ward made some nice saves on the few chances the Caps had. And Erik Cole put on quite a show, making our defensemen look foolish more than once...like they need people’s help to do that. All in all, a very solid effort by the home team to even the season series at 1-1.

The Caps get their chance for revenge next Friday night when Carolina comes to call. I think they’ll be ready.